Equinix Q4 profit rises to $45M on asset sale

Equinix Inc. earned $44.9 million in the fourth quarter on sales of $506.5 million, but its profit was pushed up by $11.9 million from the sale of discontinued operations.

A year ago in the December quarter, the Redwood City company (NASDAQ: EQIX) earned $28.8 million on sales of $488.7 million.

During the quarter the company took an impairment charge of $9.9 million for assets it wrote off in Los Angeles and Sydney.

For the year, Equinix earned $144.7 million on sales of $1.9 billion. That compares with a profit of $94 million on sales of $1.6 billion in 2011.

At the end of 2012, Equinix had an accumulated deficit of $110.4 million -- that's how much money it has lost or written off since it started. That figure was down from $255.1 million at the end of 2011.

Equinix operates data centers in 38 global markets. Stephen Smith is its CEO and president. Before Equinix hired him in 2007, he worked at Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ).